Friday, November 1, 2013

UPDATE: State releases City for Champions analysis

It's worth noting that as far as we can tell, Economic & Planning Systems' recommendation doesn't mean the UCCS sports medicine center has been (or will be) formally struck from the proposal. But the state chose EPS to do this analysis, and its recommendation figures to be heavily weighted as the Colorado Economic Development Commission (EDC) makes a final decision on the proposal in December.

——- ORIGINAL POST, 5:37 P.M. ——-

A 58-page analysis of the City for Champions proposal for state Regional Tourism Act tax money was released late Friday and states, in part, that one project "Is not defined clearly enough or far enough along in the development process to be evaluated for the RTA funding request."

That project is the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs sports medicine center.

Overall, the four-project proposal would be eligible to receive only $31.4 million in state sales tax rebates, less than half the $82 million the city sought.

The analysis, done by Economic & Planning Systems, Inc., also states that the city's $218 million proposal contains an attendance figure for a downtown stadium that's way over existing attendance figures.

"The estimated annual stadium attendance of 672,000, which is 90 percent above the existing attendance of 345,000, is aggressive but potentially achievable," the report says.

From the report:

The Applicant has estimated that the four projects will generate $173.2 million in net new sales tax in the RTZ [regional tourism zone] over 30 years. This is equivalent to 18.7 percent of the total tax increment in the RTZ (Table 3). EPS has calculated that the Applicant would be eligible to receive 3.75 percent of the tax increment in the RTZ for the three projects analyzed, which does not include the UCCS Sports Medicine Center. This is equivalent to $31.4 million or $1.05 million per year for 30 years.

As stand-alone projects, the eligible tax increments would be as follows:
—U.S. Olympic Museum – 2.62 percent of the tax increment, or $20.8 million over 30 years
($693,000 per year).
—Downtown Stadium – 0.50 percent of the tax increment, or $3.8 million over 30 years
($127,600 per year).
—USAFA Visitors Center – 0.86 percent of the tax increment, or $6.8 million over 30 years
($226,000 per year).